Somebody needs to invent a word specifically to describe a movie that can't seem to bring itself to end. You've seen them: The action is over, the climax has been reached, but the story keeps going, lazing from melancholy aftermath scene to melancholy aftermath scene as if the filmmaker can't decide on what note he wants to end his tale.

It's often an indication of larger narrative problems, suggesting at best a less-than-firm grip on the narrative -- and at worst an uncertainty of what a filmmaker ultimately wants his movie to say.

The agro-drama "At Any Price" -- arriving today in New Orleans-area theaters -- would seem to suffer from a little bit of both. It's anchored by a fine performance from Dennis Quaid as Henry Whipple, a glad-handing Iowa farmer and businessman desperate to hold onto the family spread. Beyond that, though, writer-director Ramin Bahrani's earnest but unfocused melodrama offers neither a compelling storyline nor a satisfying message as it hitches its thumbs in its pockets and tries to figure out what movie it wants to be.

On the one hand, it's a treatise on the plight of the modern farmer in this age of Big Agro and its dominance over the little guys through, among other things, its copyrighting of genetically modified seed. That proprietary seed -- closely guarded by the big boys, as we are told -- becomes a source of concern for old Henry as he makes a self-destructive decision to clean and sell a strain of seed belonging to a none-too-pleased corporate behemoth. The result: an investigation that could see him lose the fourth-generation farm that he's struggling to save.

And therein lies one of the film's most glaring problems. Perhaps that vilification of Big Agro will resonate with farm folk, but it's not the sort of thing that will have many city slickers -- even those who sympathize with the little guys on this issue -- exactly sitting on the edge of their theater seat.

At the same time, "At Any Price" is also a character drama about Henry Whipple, whose determination to make money has him forgetting the "family" in "family farm."

When the movie starts, Henry's older son has already bolted, heading off for one of those overseas backpacking trips of which prodigal sons are so fond. (You know, the ones where they explain themselves by saying, "I've just got to find myself," but what they really mean is, "I've got to get the hell out of here.")

Younger son Dean -- played well enough by Zac Efron -- is still living at home, but his relationship with Henry is strained at best, as Dean is focused on his burgeoning career as a race-car driver, his only possible escape from a boring life of seed sales, crop yields and field temperatures.

The Whipple boys' distaste for the family business is a constant source of agita for Henry, but it's as much his fault as theirs, of course. The question at the center of "At Any Price" is whether he will figure it all out -- and if he does, if there's time to do something about it.

That father-son story is easily the more compelling part of Bahrani's film. But he ends up cluttering it all up not only with his hit-or-miss attempts at visual elegance (and the weird, out-of-nowhere inclusion of a graphic sexual image) but with any number of characters and plot elements that contribute little or nothing to the story.

There's Henry's extra-marital affair with the town hottie (Heather Graham). There's the awkward presence of Dean's young, troubled girlfriend -- and Dean's own affair with Graham. There's a $15,000 entry fee needed by Dean to enter a "real" race that could be his big break. And then there's a dark third-act development that -- although it feels a little desperate on Bahrani's part -- actually makes things a little interesting.

Unfortunately, though, it comes too late to do much good.

By the time the film ends, we're left with an ethically ambiguous film in which Bahrani seems to be asking us to root for a man with murky-at-best morals in which the ends justify the means. Maybe that's the point. Maybe it isn't.

Not only does Bahrani fail to make that clear, but he fails to make his audience care one way or the other.

_______________

AT ANY PRICE2 stars, out of 5

Snapshot: A drama about a
small-town Iowa farmer whose determination to save his family's
multi-generational spread distracts him from what's really important:
saving his relationship with his family.

What works: Dennis Quaid turns in a fine performance in the lead role.

What
doesn't: The cluttered story, with its murky ethics and its insistence
on including characters that contribute nothing, is hard to become
invested in.